“This is the right way” corn “we need to consolidate the project because today the text is insufficient”, commented on franceinfo Sylvain Angerand, campaign coordinator for the Canopée association, which aims to better protect forests in France and in the world, while the European Commission unveiled on Wednesday November 17th its plan to ban imports of certain products in the European Union, when they contribute to deforestation.
franceinfo: Are you satisfied with the European Commission’s proposal?
Sylvain Angerand: We were waiting for this legislation. This is the right way. It is the fruit of long months of work and discussions, but it is only the beginning of a process because it will have to be discussed by the European Parliament, the European Council. We need to consolidate the project because today the text is insufficient. However, the European Commission has chosen to strengthen traceability and the obligation of companies which market products to ensure that their suppliers are clean. All of this is going in the right direction. Above all, the Commission has ruled out a certain number of highly questionable options, such as the use of certifications which we know are very often of convenience.
However, you find the text insufficient. Why ?
The devil is always hiding in the details. For example, for soybeans, which represent the main source of deforestation in what we import today, the legislation proposed by the Commission focuses on forests but forgets a large part of other ecosystems. In Brazil, the cerrado – these areas of savannah which are very rich in biodiversity and carbon – is now completely destroyed to put soybeans but this is not taken into account in the legislation. This crucial point will therefore have to be reinforced. The other point concerns, for example, the issue of indigenous peoples. The legislation will have to create mechanisms to ensure that their rights are better taken into account. Dn a large number of countries such as Brazil, Indonesia or the Congo Basin countries, on observes that the peoples who live from the forest do not have recognized rights. This legislation should help them to access these rights.
What if Brazil is not included in this legislation?
This is precisely what is interesting and it is on this point that the text will have to be strengthened. We have a real lever for transforming the market because, if we look at the world market, it is concentrated in the hands of a few large international traders, such as Bunge and Cargill, who sell in Europe but also in China and India. If European law is content to say that we want to ensure that what comes into Europe is clean, we do not solve the problem of deforestation, we simply move it elsewhere. On the other hand, if Europe says that it also wants to ask companies and partner producer countries to improve their legislation, to ensure that the products are clean, there is indeed a leverage effect. This is what the entire discussion with Parliament and the Council will have to focus on, in order to make this law a real means of combating deforestation.